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We all harbor a secret wish that we could find a previously unseen project by one of the greatest figures in animation history. Well, wish no more - celebrating the 2012 centennial of Chuck Jones's birth, IDW's Library of American Comics unveils Chuck Jones: The Dream That Never Was! The Academy Award-winning director of "Duck Amuck," "What's Opera, Doc," "How The Grinch Stole Christmas," and other timeless classics, created dozens of cartoon characters throughout his decades-long career: Pepe Le Pew, Marvin the Martian, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote... and Crawford, an accident prone, nine-year-old boy whose daily routine includes surviving his own boyhood. Chuck Jones: The Dream That Never Was follows the twenty-seven year journey it took Jones to bring Crawford to the public, from conception to storyboard to newspaper strip. This incredible volume is loaded with never-before-seen sketches, drawings, storyboards, and production notes, and the six-month run of the Crawford newspaper comic strip from 1978. Accompanying the artwork is a biography of Chuck Jones's career in the sixties and seventies and how it influenced the creation of Chuck's only foray into the world of comic strips Animation Magazine calls Chuck Jones: The Dream that Never Was one of the "10 Essential Books for Animation Students".

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

I must say this is one fabulous book. I came across the pre-order a couple of months ago. By it's description and being a Chuck Jones animation fan it seemed like a fair purchase. I asked my wife to get it for my birthday thinking it would arrive mid January. Well it came out the 23rd of December, shipped one day with super saver I might add and arrived on the 24th. So a big thumbs up to Amazon on this one.

Now for the book...Wow what a find. I have never written a review for anything ever. But this book is so well done it merits praise. When I first held it I thought this thing is heavy. I mean it is a thick book. When I opened it I could see why. Professional grade art paper (giclee), every page is high quality. The art in usual Chuck Jones fashion is phenomenal. There's so much to enjoy about this book. I am not a art critic and my review is purely based on own my opinion, so if you disagree...fine. But for my 2 cent opinion...(if it's worth that) I wear white cotton gloves to turn the pages, treating it like the fine art it is. We are fortunate to live in an age where most anyone can have such a masterpiece for such a reasonable price.

In the world of animation, there are very few names that loom as large as that of Chuck Jones (1912 - 2002). While at Warner Bros., Mr. Jones was responsible for some of the most memorable cartoon characters ever created. These include The Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Pepe Le Pew, and Marvin The Martian - among many others. He was so well respected that he won four Academy Awards, and was nominated a total of eight times.

He had one spectacular failure however, which is almost never discussed. In the new IDW book Chuck Jones: The Dream That Never Was, edited by Dean Mullaney & Kurtis Findlay, we are introduced to Crawford - a character Chuck worked on in various formats for a period of 27 years.

The nine-year old Crawford was initially to be introduced to the public in 1962, on the first Road Runner TV series. The character did not quite fit the tone of the show however, and wound up on the cutting room floor. This was to be the case time and again during the 1960s and `70s, until one day the opportunity arose for Crawford to become a syndicated newspaper comic strip.

By this time, Crawford had been refined numerous times. Jones had developed various proposals for a TV show starring Crawford, and during this time had fleshed out the character considerably. For various reasons though, much of it simply bad luck - the proposals were never picked up. So when the opportunity arose to bring Crawford to life in the newspapers, Chuck went for it.

Opinions vary as to why Crawford the comic strip only lasted for five months before being pulled, but that of Robert Reed - who was president of the Chicago Tribune - New York News Syndicate is telling; "I think it was a bit too sophisticated for the public and the editors," he said.Read more ›

The strip ran for such a short amount of time in so few papers it's no wonder it's virtually unknown today; that is until now. "The Dream That Never Was" is a boon for comic nerds, but sadly light on actual entertainment.

Crawford's journey over the years from movie side character to proposed TV show to short-lived comic strip is meticulously documented, along with everything else Jones was working at the time. This is probably the most in-depth coverage of Jones' post-Looney Tunes career you'll ever find.

However, it doesn't take long to figure out why the strip only lasted a few months; it's painfully boring and unfunny. I got maybe two mild chuckles out of the entire run. So much of it is just puffed up semantics and pseudo-intellectualism. What am I supposed to do with punchlines like "Happiness is a warm aphorism"?

The characters are all bland and largely interchangeable. After reading every single strip, the only thing I know about the title character is that he's bad at sports. Jones' writeup of the best friend character Morgan only gives him two minor traits (arcane trivia knowledge and an inability to remember Crawford's name) and both are completely used up after the first week of strips.

Even though I'm not a big fan of Chuck Jones' art style in his later work, I have to admit that the quality of the artwork is fantastic; far better than all but a few newspaper strips. And getting to see roughs, thumbnails and alternate panels is quite a treat. The section of storyboards for the proposed TV show are also very nice, and show more promise than what the strip ended up being.

If you're a huge fan of Chuck Jones or comics and the history thereof, by all means give this book a shot. Just don't expect the humor to inspire much re-reading.